Print edition: 
Think your holiday season is busy?
Dave Schirer likely has you beat — this Saturday, at least.
The 54-year-old pastor of West Side Baptist Church is running a 5K Saturday morning.
Then, as chairman of the Delano Clergy Association, he'll serve hot chocolate to folks lined up for the Delano Christmas parade.
Then he'll walk alongside a float in the parade.
And after that, he'll rush back to church for a wedding.
His wedding.
Schirer and his fiancee, Melissa Turner, didn't intend for their wedding day to be quite so hectic. But "that's just the kind of person I am," he said. "I guess I do have a hard time saying no."
Schirer and Turner picked the date and began planning their nuptials months ago. They liked the idea of a holiday-season wedding, and the timing meshed with their work and graduate school schedules.
They decided to start the day with a 5K run "to do something kind of different," Schirer says, and because Turner is a longtime runner. The bride, groom and about 20 friends and family members plan to run.
They chose a route and the 8 a.m. start time and dubbed it the Wichita Wedding 5K. (It's not affiliated with the Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis, also scheduled for Saturday.)
Schirer's sister-in-law made T-shirts for the wedding party with the slogan, "We're in it for the long run."
"She's a runner. I'm not," Schirer said of his fiancee. "We used this as an incentive to get me to run, and it worked."
When Schirer learned the Delano Christmas parade would be the same day — between the morning run and his afternoon wedding — he signed on to help.
"I think it's important for the people in Delano to know that the clergy care for them and our churches care for them," he said. Besides, "I had a couple hours free."
Turner, who arrived in Wichita on Thursday from her home in Greenwood, Ark., will skip the parade to get ready for the ceremony. It will begin at 3:16 p.m., a nod to John 3:16.
The next day Schirer will be back at work, leading the service and delivering the sermon at West Side Baptist.
"I tend to stay pretty busy," he said. His new wife, too, will return to her job at an Arkansas gas utility for a few weeks before her final move to Wichita.
Finally, in January, the couple will honeymoon in Hawaii.
"That will be nice," Schirer said. "Worth the wait."
